"I've been living in NW Wales for fifteen years so it's been a while, but it's been wonderful. My husband is in the hotel industry and when he got a job at the Buckley we settled in Beaumaris. I already loved the place because my aunt used to live just outside Beaumaris and I'd been over in 1976 to visit her and loved it.

I love this area because it's rich in culture, in scenery - you can go into the mountains or along the coastline and it's very inspiring. I started designing Medieval dresses because of all that we have here in North Wales - I hadn't done any back in Ireland.

Unfortunately, the teaching of Welsh history doesn't really exist in Ireland so when I came over here I studied Welsh Medieval history at Bangor University and through Llandrillo College in Rhos on Sea and developed a real love of it. I had a shop in Beaumaris in a 1401 building, which also influenced me a lot. So always being surrounded by this culture and having a love for Medieval history anyway I decided to specialise in Medieval and corseted wedding dresses.

I've researched the clothing of the time and if somebody wants an authentic dress I design one. I found a book on how they used to cut out the patterns many years ago - it's been really helpful.

Medieval dresses are mostly significant for the corsetry and the big sleeves. The revival of Lord of the Rings has made Medieval influenced clothes popular and things like the big sleeves are very much in, whether they're solid sleeves or more wispy ones made out of organza.

I especially love making corseted dresses because you can really create a wonderful style and shape which you wouldn't have normally. They can really do something to a girl's body and the guys love them!

About 80% of the designs I do for wedding wear are Medieval and corseted. I do very few traditional wedding dresses and I rarely work in white - it's usually golds, reds, greens, blues.

I also love gothic clothes because again that's harking back to a bygone era. You can do so much with the big sleeves and the texture of the fabric - the velvets, laces, silks, brocades.

There are some great heroines in Medieval history which inspire me. I have a great love for Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard Lionheart and John 1st's mother. She was quite a woman - she married two kings, one of England and one of France - and both her children became kings of those countries as well. She was also an extremely powerful woman in her own right.

There's also Joan, Llywelyn Fawr's wife - she was quite a lady as well and her stone Sarcophagus is in the church of St Mary's and St Michael's in Beaumaris.

Welsh ladies in those days were able to maintain their land, which women from other countries were not able to do. Even if they were widowed or split up from their partners - divorce was also available to Welsh women - they still retained their land.

I've been in business 33 years. I started in Ireland when I wasn't even 16 - I haven't known anything else and I love it. I couldn't work for any one else because I think I'd be fired on the spot - I'm to arrogant, to opinionated and I know what I want to do.

Each day brings in something new, something different and that sparks me. I can't design for people I'm not sparked by because you're working very closely with your clients and you have to get into what they want and be sparked by them."